A multitude of medical treatment methods with which electrical energy is applied in a targeted manner onto body tissue to be treated, has been applied for some time now. Examples of this are coagulation, electrotomy and the ablation of body tissue. These methods are also applied in the field of minimal-evasive surgery. The endoscopic instruments which are applied there usually comprise an elongate shank, on whose distal end a tool is arranged, and this tool is provided with one or two electrodes, depending on whether it is the case of a monopolar or bipolar instrument, and these electrodes can be conductively connected to a voltage source arranged proximally of the shank, via an electrical cable connection led through the shank.
Such instruments, with which a tool carrier carrying the tool and at the distal shank end can be bent relative to the shank and, as the case may be, the tool can also be bent relative to the tool carrier, form the starting point of the invention. It is common to articulately connect the tool carrier to the shank via a joint and to articulately connect the tool to the tool carrier via a further joint, for the bending of the tool carrier and the tool. Different joint mechanisms are used in this context, but these however all lead to a comparatively complex mechanical construction of the instrument in the region of the tool carrier. This complexity is additionally increased due to the fact that guides for the electrical cable connections, via which electrodes arranged on the tool are conductively connectable to a voltage source arranged proximally of the shank, must be provided within the tool carrier. This all has a disadvantageous effect on the cross-sectional size of the instrument, which actually should be kept as small as possible.